The High Energy Muffin

It all started with a bag of hazelnuts that I bought from Trader Joe’s. I blame the perfectly whole hazelnuts for this entire (series of baking) invention. What began as a small toasted snack became this entire multi-grain bran-muffin invention journey thing -- which happened to be quite successful with my roommates; so much so, that we kept on rotation new batches and boxes of this muffin on our common fridge shelf to share. Warning: the fat and calorie content of this recipe will shock you but we actually lost weight from this muffin feature,and here is why: we Keto-hacked the recipe. It contains an insane amount of grain protein from the buckwheat, quinoa, flax, and hazelnuts. On top of that, the entire batter swam in extra virgin olive oil.

The High Energy Muffin @sfgnwn

Here’s the recipe: it will take 10-15 minutes to put together and will need a bake time of 25-38 minutes depending on your oven and baking utensils. I used the food processor for this with the plastic blade blender-mixer setting; it’ll save you from post-baking clean-up (and it'll keep things moving and mixing along and you wouldn't have to change blades or mixing paddles mid-prepping because of the nuts).

Before you start:
Preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Place your racks on two-shelves settings at most. If you plan to bake more than 12 at one time remember to increase the baking time by 5~12 minutes and bake two sheets on two staggered levels.

Making the muffin batter:

Mix these ingredients in the food processor for 5-8 minutes, i.e. until well incorporated. You can also soak all the grains before you begin, if you’re avoidant of dishes.

• Extra virgin olive oil - 1.5 cup (for taste, you can also replace with Coconut Oil -- it’ll come out a rounder flavor and instead of targeting cholesterol health you’ll be aiming for skin and hair health)
• Egg - one to bind (Vegans can skip this, the muffin will just turn out flatter or you can replace eggs with mushy bananas; 1.5 mashed banana per egg)
• Something sweet - 1~0.5 cup of brown sugar (Keto switch: you can also go with Stevia for a shockingly low calorie perfectly sweetened muffin of <80 kcal with this recipe. Sad news: your caloric intake changes with Stevia, but doesn’t change the chemical effect in your neurology.)

Bakers like to call this the wet mix, but I like to think of my baking and cooking a little differently: live, fresh, and fillers/binding ingredients. If you choose to go down the health route of sprouted foods and live cultures, you’ll soon learn that wet and dry ingredients in baking, or cooking, aren’t always exclusive -- but should be thought out and planned in the cooking phase to ensure that the most nutrition or food sciences comes through in the food/dishes you are preparing. Seeing that we are working on a keto-hack with muffins, we want to see: 1) healthy oils as the priority and 2) fiber to support inner cleansing.

Next, add to the food processor the fiber and protein rich ingredients:

• Wheat bran or wheat germ - one entire bag of Bob’s Mill wheat bran 20 ounces
• Old fashioned rolled oats - 1 big cup

(pre-soak if you don’t like oat flakes in your "carbs", we do so we folded it in)

• Buckwheat - 1 cup

(again, pre-soak if you don’t like grainy breads -- I damped this grain to sprout it slightly for extra nutrients and that is something you can do for most grains)

• Trader Joe’s Quinoa Flax Seed Sprout Mix -- 2 tablespoons (pre-soaked in equal parts to 2x of water or until very slimy, like egg whites. This is to reduce egg consumption in our baking.)
• Honey wheat bread mix or bread flour - 3/4 cup

(you can also replace this with self-raising flour add one tablespoon of baking powder)

• Whole toasted hazelnuts - then chopped or crushed

(How to toast hazelnut in a pan: on low heat add hazelnut to dry/clean pan, occasionally stirring to avoid burning the nuts. You'll know that its ready when the hazelnuts smell wonderful.)

• Desiccated coconut -- 1 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut
• A pinch of salt

To bake (preheat oven to 350; bake between 325-350 depending on your tins)

Spoon into your baking muffin/cupcake tin (use paper or silicone liners) until ⅔ full for just off the rim muffins or ¾ for over the top muffins. Bake for 25-28 minutes for trays of 12-muffins, single layer baking; or 25-38 minutes for two levels of staggered 12-muffin tins. Darker muffin trays will require less time or lower heat -- if you bake at a different temperature than the preheat setting, remember to place the tins in first then let your oven gradually change to the lower or higher heat setting. You don’t need to grease your paper liners or silicon cups. If you’re unsure of the bake time or if your muffins are thoroughly cooked, try the toothpick test: insert a clean toothpick to the thickest part of the muffin, if the toothpick comes out clean the muffin is done. Always let your muffins cool on a rack especially if you plan to store it in a air tight box for several days of muffin-eating. 

(If you want to be adventurous and hike up the heat for a fluffier muffin, do so after you have placed your tins in and try your best not to go above 375 because the fat will swelter and or your muffin will come out crispier on the outside and sometimes uncooked on the inside. Alternatively, for fluffier bread like muffins, you can just let your muffin pre-rise before baking it in the oven at 350; just add 15-45 minutes of rising time to your total cook time.)

Taste-twisters (these are for variations and entirely optional):

Peanut butter & carrot multigrain muffins:

Whisk olive oil with peanut butter add 1 cup of shredded carrots to the batter. Do not bake peanut oil as much as you’re tempted to eat peanuts all day long. It’ll send your triglycerides off whack and I’m not entirely sure if it’ll return looking anything like normal. Whole Foods makes a super fresh ground peanut butter, if you're undecided on the peanut butter type or brand. (Coconut will be optional in this recipe; do not cook coconut and peanut butter together, you won’t taste either.) Check out this version of Vegan PBJ muffin by the Minimalist Baker.

Cocoa & olive oil butter muffin: Add 2-5 heapfuls of Hershey’s chocolate powder to the olive oil; or fold in chunks of your favorite chocolates to the pre-bake mixture. Dark chocolates and semi-sweet chips are always great for a flavor punch and go well with the shredded coconuts. Petit Cook's Vegan Chocolate Muffin is great chocolate muffin go-to.

Drop the keto-hack and go for Kid-friendly muffins:

Yeast & milk muffins: Add 1 cup of whole warm milk with activated yeast (stir: warmish milk with 2-3 spoonfuls of regular sugar and 1-2 spoonfuls of active yeast in a mug; let the yeast activate until it is a foamy mixture). Fold the yeast and milk mix to the flour mix before adding it to your food processor mix. Add ½ cup of poppy seed to the final batter. Feel free to replace or add: milk chocolate and almond slivers. You’ll definitely want to pre-soak all the fibers and grains for this kids’ version. Here's a Vegan Brioche Muffin recipe from @netalivne.

The Vegan Brioche Muffin @netalivne

(For this lighter muffin, we dropped a yellow lemon poppy seed flavor and added one cup of cake batter mix into the original recipe and a splash of cold milk. Lemons and olive oil batter is a dream! Our adult version came out mildly sweetened, compared to the original high energy muffin, since the bran and grains do still come out as the stronger flavor compared to the lemon cake mix and poppy seed, but here’s to switching it up. Here's a @letseatsmart doughy Raspberry Rhubarb Vegan Muffin.)

Happy baking!